Premier Eminent
"Are you, perhaps, seeking the secret behind Ruklys? Speak honestly otherwise face the consequence." -'Premier Eminent to the Revelator.' Premier Eminent was a Demon Lord who disguised himself as a human and monopolized the Kingdom's government from his political position, and believed to be the son of the last member of the Eminent family. He was well known as exceptionally well-mannered for someone of his noble status, which made him a widely respected figure among the people living in his father's lands. He was particularly remembered for having saved multiple lives during an epidemic that had spread over the region the previous year. The disease took the lives of all his brothers and sisters, leaving only his ailing father and himself in the family. Most believed that, if it weren't for his son's devoted care and attention, the lord too would have perished from the epidemic. Assured by the young nobleman's selfless and respectful nature, the inhabitants of the land looked forward to the day he became his father's successor. Failing to defeat Lydia Schaffen and Maven For the first time after Gesti discovered Laima's plans to hand Her Revelations over to posterity, the keeper of a Revelation had been murdered by a demon. Others had been sent by Gesti to complete that very mission, but Premier Eminent had been the first to succeed. As Lydia Schaffen's arrow burried itself into Ruklys' neck, Premier Eminent looked ready to shout out, 'I won!,' but he did not say a word. His only grudge was failing to defeat Schaffen and Maven. Their names were far too powerful for him to attempt it without great risks. With Ruklys gone, all that was left to do was find the Revelation he was guarding. One word to poor King Kadumel was enough to grant Eminent full control over the operations. He looked set to accomplish the enormous feat of becoming the first demon to seize Laima's Revelation. Suddenly, Lydia Schaffen made her way towards him. His human self was older than her, but he made the effort to address the acclaimed archer in his usual polite tone. "I was always sure you would be the one to capture the rebel leader. No general, no officer of the Kingdom but you, Lydia." Lydia gave one look at the cunning politician before sighing deeply. "Next time you can believe I will be keeping my eyes on you. I don't care where you are or what you're doing, you won't be so safe anymore as long as I'm around. Mark my words." Had another human spoken to him so brazenly, he would not have hesitated to retaliate. With Lydia, he merely maintained his unassuming expression of years trained in human interaction and spoke in a soft tone. "You are as proud as the one you killed today, I can tell. I should say, however, that one does not reach my position without a certain level of... competence." Eminent and Schaffen peppered their words with the right amount of ambiguity. Their conversation was less and less a dialog between two humans. Lydia spoke next. "I knew a fool who used to say that... He's still up there, riding my arrow. I don't know if you know him." It was true. No demon, neither the fool she spoke of, nor the highest of demon lords had ever crossed her path and survived. Eminent found it hard to believe that would be his fate but, even with his immense power, Lydia was far from an easy target. Not only that, if there was any human capable of destroying a demon lord, the woman standing in front of him was certainly one of them. Her mentor Maven, on the other hand, was a high-ranked cleric who would stop at no means to defend himself from the demons. Eminent decided not to respond to Lydia's provocation. In his human form of chancellor Eminent, he was in no way related to her sharp arrows. Lydia Schaffen's strategy, however, was not to fight physically. "Do you really think you'll get what you want now that Ruklys is dead? Have you forgotten that I was given the same divine task? If there was any chance of it getting to your hands, do you think he would have died at mine? Your plan will never work. You can be sure of that. But it's time for me to go now. Do me a favor when you deliver the news to His Majesty. Make sure everyone understands exactly what I did." Lydia Schaffen bowed and slowly walked away. Eminent wasn't too concerned yet. True despair wouldn't come for him until 10 days later. Gesti's Anger Emiment kneeled silently before Gesti. They were on the Fortress of the Land Ruklys had once built. Looking down at Eminent, Gesti spoke with despise. "You scoured through every body of every miserable human in here for years, and you can't tell me where in this fortress it's hidden?" "Forgive me." Eminent replied in an almost inaudible voice. In his mind, he wondered for a moment if Baiga would have understood his situation better than Gesti. She interrupted his train of thought immediately. "What are you going to do about it? You're a chancellor to those humans now. If the King calls you back to the court, how are you going to keep looking for it? Huh? Look at you. Does it look like you did a good job, playing human like that? What good is it now, if you can't even do you real job?" Eminent could no longer stand listening to Gesti berate him in silence. "As chancellor I have authority over many human subordinates, including armies. Even if I return to the capital, I can send soldiers under my orders to continue looking..." Angered, Gesti spoke over him. "And start depending on those filthy humans again? You couldn't find it, but you think they can? What are you even thinking??" Seeing the ire in Gesti's eyes, Eminent lowered his head. She continued. "You've been living with them for too long. I want you to stop playing chancellor and focus on your job for once. Just find me the Revelation." Eminent rushed to answer. "I remind you that my position would be very useful for keeping humans away while we're searching. I can have the measures taken under my orders, then kill my human character and return to this place immediately to continue the search. Please, allow me to do so." Gesti wasn't overly pleased with Eminent's plan, but she agreed to it. "You were the first to kill Laima's chosen keeper, I suppose. I'll allow it." Hearing Gesti's voice soften, Eminent pushed for a second request. "I have only one more thing to ask." "What is it?" Premier Eminent thought carefully on how to convey his second request to Demon Lord Gesti. "Many of Ruklys' followers are still living in a city near the fortress called Roxona. My soldiers have been keeping guard at the fortress for now, but they can't do that forever. If we let them be, his followers will try to invade the fortress. But I also can't arrest an entire city..." "Spare me the details of human society. Just say what you want to do." "If you could destroy the city with your powers..." "Why don't you do it yourself?" "I certainly could, with the right amount of preparation and the right tools. But annihilating an entire city would call the attention of the goddesses. And then there's the agreement..." "Didn't you kill everyone in that noble family to get to your position? The goddesses didn't do anything then, why would they care now? I doubt they'll even find out about it." Eminent replied. "Those humans died from an epidemic. It's true that I created the disease and made it spread, but ultimately I didn't kill them. The locals saw me as a virtuous man. Not to mention the scale of that was much smaller than an entire city. This will be a much more serious violation of the agreement in the eyes of the goddesses." Gesti was engrossed in her thoughts for a moment. To her, humans were of no particular interest. The same could not be said about the goddesses. Knowing the next step of Giltine's great plan, she did not want to provoke them. But most of all, there was the agreement that could not be broken by either side. They had apologized for minor transgressions before, but to completely disregard the agreement was yet out of the question. Gesti finally spoke again. "Here's what we're going to do. I'm going to cast a petrifying curse on the city. In theory, the humans can return to normal when the curse is broken, so they won't be dead. Meanwhile, you can use your authority in the human Kingdom to move the petrified ones to another location. That will keep them away without us needing to kill them. Whatever happens next will be the work of the humans, meaning Zemyna as well will be less likely to suspect us." "Understood. If we can also convince the humans that it's a curse from the goddesses, like the rumors about Ruklys, I don't think anything can stop this plan." "You can take care of that yourself, just focus on the goal. Remember, we're not trying to kill Laima's chosen keepers; what we want is the Revelations and nothing more. Be grateful that Giltine hasn't punished you yet, and work harder to finish your job. That's what you really ought to do." With these words, Gesti disappeared. Premier Eminent was finally able to stand again. He was burdened with a heavy task. He did not know yet about the long years he would spend inside that fortress, never reaching success. If he did know, he would have perhaps been slightly consoled by the fact that Laima had been left deeply grief-stricken after Ruklys' death under his false accusations. In the conflict between goddesses and demons, that too was a victory. Gallery CHAR Eminent3D.png|Premier Eminent's 3D model References *Tree of Savior Database - tosneet *Tree of Savior Official site *ToS Guru Data base __FORCETOC__ __NOEDITSECTION__ Category:Characters